Packers and bridge plugs are used downhole to isolate one part of a well from another part of the well. In some applications, such as delivery through tubing to be set in casing below the tubing, the packer or bridge plug must initially pass through a restriction in the tubing that is substantially smaller than the diameter of the casing where it is to be set. One such design of a high expansion bridge plug is U.S. Pat. No. 4,554,973 assigned to Schlumberger. As an example, this design can pass through 2.25 inch tubing and still be set in casing having an inside diameter of 6.184 inches. The sealing element is deformable by collapsing on itself. The drawback of such a design is that setting it requires a great deal of force and a long stroke.
Another design involves the use of an inflatable that is delivered in the collapsed state and is inflated after it is properly positioned. The drawback of such designs is that the inflatable can be damaged during run in. In that case it will not inflate or it will burst on inflation. Either way, no seal is established. Additionally, change in downhole temperatures can affect the inflated bladder to the point of raising its internal pressure to the point where it will rupture. On the other hand, a sharp reduction in temperature of the well fluids can cause a reduction in internal sealing pressure to the point of total loss of seal and release from the inside diameter of the wellbore.
Conventional packer designs that do not involve high expansion use a sleeve that is longitudinally compressed to increase its diameter until there is a seal. In large expansion situations, a large volume of solid sleeve is needed to seal an annular space between a mandrel that can be 1.75 inches and a surrounding tubular that can be 6.184 inches. The solution has typically been to use fairly long sleeves as the sealing elements. The problem with longitudinal compression of a sleeve with a large ratio of height to diameter is that such compression doesn't necessarily produce a linear response in the way of a diameter increase. The sleeve buckles or twists and can leave passages on its outer surface that are potential leak paths even it makes contact with the surrounding tubular.
Shape memory polymers (SMP) are known for their property of resuming a former shape if subjected to a given temperature transition. These materials were tested in a high expansion application where their shape was altered from an initial shape to reduce their diameter with the idea being that exposure to downhole temperatures would make them revert to their original shape and hopefully seal in a much larger surrounding pipe. As it turned out the resulting contact force from the memory property of such materials was too low to be useful as the material was too soft to get the needed sealing force after it changed shape.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,941,313 illustrates the use of a deformable material within a covering as a sealing element in a packer application.
The preferred embodiment of present invention seeks to address a high expansion packer or bridge plug application using SMP and takes advantage of their relative softness when reaching a transition temperature where the SMP wants to revert to a former shape. Taking advantage of the softness of such a material when subjected to temperatures above its transition temperature, the present invention takes advantage of that property to compress the material when soft to reduce the force required to set. The SMP is constrained while the temperature changes and as it gets stiffer while retaining its constrained shape so that it effectively seals.
Those skilled in the art will better appreciate the various aspects of the invention from the description of the preferred embodiment and the drawings that appear below and will recognize the full scope of the invention from the appended claims.